thanks for the response. i'm not understanding how to calculate. when i added my weight, height, and age 1826.95 is what i was given as bmr. i believe that will change as i lose. with that # i multiplied it with my excercise activity (1.55) and got 2831.75 - I am lost trying to understand what to do after. I took the 2831.75, multiplied it by days of the week (7) and subtracted 7000 (2 lbs) and then divided by 7 to get 1831.75 on days i work out. on days i dont work out, not sure if i calculated correctly. do i take 2831.75 and multiply by 1.2? i did and used that same formula (multiplied it by days of the week (7) and subtracted 7000 (2 lbs) and then divided by 7 ) and got 2098.33 - where am i off track? ( i am 5'6, 237 lbs, f, 36yr)
this is the site i used
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

Hi all. Thank you for the informative post. I noticed that OP suggested we ask for help if we're already at week 6 with no progress whatsoever.

I'm at week 6 (since beginning of January) and have not lost weight or inches so I'm quite desperate now. Could anyone please help me review what I've been doing to see whether I've done anything wrong? I've opened up my diary so that everyone can have a look. My stats are as follows:

Height: 5 feet 1
Age: 22
Current weight: 116lbs (same since mid December)
Goal weight: 105lbs
Body fat %: 25% according to fat2fit

I eat as cleanly as possible and hardly eat out. I log what I eat and measure my food using a scale. I only drink green tea and water. Of course, I do have the occasional treats like cookies so that I don't feel deprived. I'm looking to lose those last 10 pounds of fat. I'm aware that I'm at a healthy weight but I look squishy and chubby. I've always been that fluffy kid in pictures and I want to shed that image once and for all.

As for exercise, I work out 4~5 times a week which puts me under 'moderately active', but I set my activity level to lightly active instead because I'm sedentary for the rest of the day. My bum is literally glued to the chair. So I get a tdee of 1564 from http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ if I set my activity level to 1-3 hrs of light exercise. 1564 is quite high for me since I've always been eating at 1200~1350 net. Occasionally I do eat 1500~1600. I don't usually eat back my exercise calories, even when I was eating 1,350 cals so I might have been eating below my BMR sometimes. I know that's not healthy. Lastly, I did have some cheat days where I don't log my calories. I logged once and I reached 2000cals! I got shocked. Now, I am trying to eat around 1,350, which is calculation I got from fat2fit at a 20% deficit.

I don't mind not losing any pounds if I'm losing inches all around my body, so please help, anyone. Thanks!

Which fat2fit BF% calc did you use? The 1 or 2 measurement method can be about useless.
Avg the Covert and Military that use several measurements.

Did you use that BF% on the scooby site for Katch BMR?

Because you aren't doing yourself any favors reading the scooby site wrong.
Even at rough 5 levels you are guestimating to be on the safe side - has it helped?

Be honest, how many hours of exercise a week is Sedentary?
How many hours a week of exercise are you doing?

Did you see anything in those level descriptions concerning daily life outside exercise?
No. That is MFP, that only deals with daily activity without exercise - just opposite.

Sounds like you are saying you are almost skinny fat then, healthy weight range but more fat than desired and noticeable.
That usually comes from bad choices losing weight, which ends up being muscle mass, not just or primarily fat.

Don't risk doing it again, unless you just want a lighter version of current self.

So with little to lose, you should be trying to lose little. 10% deficit max for last 10 lbs. And an honest TDEE estimate, which you aren't being.

Or use the spreadsheet on my profile page and be honest there too with your activity levels for the exercise.

I used the military one on fat2fit and it gave me around 25% body fat, so I used that on the scooby site.

I really don't know how many hours of exercise a week is considered Sedentary. I just know that I'm glued to my chair most of the day except when I work out. Whenever I work out, I try to exercise 45 ~ 60 minutes so that makes it around 3~4 hours of exercise a week. It may be less if I only manage to work out 30 minutes a day. My workouts are of varying intensities. They range from light to moderate. I do HIIT on my stationery bike for cardio.

Yes, I can agree with you that I am skinny fat and I also agree that I don't have much weight to lose, only stubborn fat. I can see some nice abs beneath my belly fat when I flex my muscles so I'm really looking forward to losing some body fat.

Okay, so I went back to the scooby site and inputted 3-5 hours of moderate exercise as my activity level and got 1866 cals. It's much higher than what I'm used to eating on average, but if it will help, then I will definitely do it.

Might use both calcs for an average BF%.

Also, that link you provided has no place to input BF%, so I don't know if you got the Katch BMR that even uses it.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

So it sounds like you went back and read the actual descriptions of the exercise levels then. See, it said how many hours in there. This is your body you are talking about, don't be haphazard, that can work at the start with a lot to lose and with perhaps few negative results, but that's bad later on.

So HIIT, if done correctly, is not moderate, should be intense. Those TDEE descriptions are not about what the exercise it, but the time per week doing them.
Most would appreciate that walking 10 hrs daily light intensity for 3-4 mph would NOT be Lightly Active. But neither would 1 hr of walking equal 1 hr of running.

Hence the suggestion to use the spreadsheet if you want best estimates to get closest to estimated TDEE.

While close to 1900 eating may be higher than what you were doing - how does it compare exactly to what you ate when you weren't exercising and weren't on a diet?

To the workouts, you are doing the HIIT because of fat burn compared to steady state cardio right?
Well, what allows you to push so hard on the hard part?
The rest in-between, right.
So look at your weekly schedule - you aren't doing HIIT every day, right? Where's the easy part so the intense day can be really intense for maximum effect?

To the HIIT, proper usage would be 15-45 seconds of increased tension and faster cadence for all out push, and then 3 x as long so 45 to 135 seconds of low tension and slightly slower cadence to recover. Do about 8-10 sets, start and end with warm-up and cooldown. Not every day as I mentioned above.

There ya go.

Might also confirm, with so little to lose, confirm you are selecting 10% deficit.

That way you'll also get the most benefit from the exercise. During good hard exercise, body would of course love to have a surplus of calories to work with.
Maintenance can still do some changes though slower.
During a deficit even less changes and much slower.

Since you have more body recomp you want to do, weight isn't bad, the heavier the weights can be for improving strength and body to make more muscle, the better.

Heybales, I have a similar problem to the previous member who posted, except that I've plateaued longer..... Been stuck at the same weight since December last year. I'm looking to lose another 10~15lbs because I look puffy and 'soft'. I have a pear-shaped body so all my excess fat sit stubbornly on my hips and thighs, thus making my body look disproportionate. I am 5 feet 2 and 128 lbs.

My biggest confusion is on estimating the activity level. I don't work in an office so I don't walk to my car or up and down stairs in the office. I'm always seated at my desk at home and I hardly walk. For example, I'll only get up to walk to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. I fidget quite a lot and I use many hand gestures and I speak. I currently work out 5 times a week, but I set my activity level to lightly active considering how sedentary I am when I am not working out.

I became quite desperate to lose weight in January and ate about 1250~1300 calories a day (gross) and did not eat back exercise calories, putting me under my bmr sometimes. I go over 1400 2-3 times in a week so I thought it was still okay to be undereating sometimes as long as I average out fine at the end. I also increased my workout days from 3 to 5 and also increased the duration from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Intensity is also moderate. My ratio of strength training to cardio is currently 3:2. Was I overworking my body? I made sure my muscles were not sore when I worked out and if they still were, I would take a day off.

Now, I'm wondering whether it's because of the severe calorie restriction and increase of exercise that I didn't manage to lose any weight OR INCHES, since being at such a deficit should have produced some results by now if I were to follow the simply calorie-in, calorie-out logic of losing weight.

Please help me shed some light. I'm considering upping my calories to 1450~1500cals after reading this topic, but I'm a bit afraid that my actual tdee is lower than scooby's site and I wasn't able to lose weight previously because I had been eating too much. For your information, I do log my food and use a scale to measure. Scooby's site gives me 1514cals to lose weight at only 10% reduction after I put in my body fat %.

Yes, you can view that TDEG as max deficit to retain muscle mass. Actually, it's based on study where they gained LBM while lifting with steeper deficit.

But it's for fat loss, not performance. Always eat more up to TDEE for adherence to diet if needed, and for performance gains if that is of more interest than fat loss being at max.

And that is estimated TDEE, a months worth of data and results can help point out true TDEE - but you have to come in from the high side.

You probably need to take a diet break and eat at estimated TDEE for awhile, unstress your body.
And examine your logging of food, weighing everything, with such a small margin for error, you'll have to do much right to see good results.

At least after a month of good data, even if sloppy logging, you can cut calories from an inaccurate eating level and cause loss, knowing that truthfully you are eating more than your goal would indicate.

But you'll need a month, valid weigh-ins, and no change or addition of intense exercise before any weigh-in on the range.
Progress tab has a TDEE calc on right that helps with that. But only useful if coming in from high side and not potentially suppressed TDEE already.
No need chasing a suppressed TDEE in to the ground more, no place to go then.

I'd suggest against the eating in surplus until metabolism is burning fine.
1 day of surplus is just seen as surplus, and that is stored as fat.

That is exactly how someone that is bad about binging on a low calorie diet gains weight and fat. They've suppressed their system, and their binge days and meals just adds fat - doesn't increase metabolism. Body's storing fat incase the craziness continues.

The TDEE deficit method already calorie cycles if you think about. You are eating the same amount daily, but are you actually burning exactly the same amount daily?
No, some days is bigger deficit than others really, depending on the workouts.
TDEE deficit method is the ultimate calorie cycling method really.

Since your TDEE is based on your BMR, and BMR is based on BF%, you did enter the results from the BF calc in to the field asking for that stat? You didn't leave the example 42%?

And you got your time of exercise entered in correctly? It states how many hrs a week that workout is, sounds right?
So 5 days x 60 min, should say 5 hrs. ratio 3:2, so 3 hrs lifting, 2 hrs high cardio?
Lifting doesn't burn that many calories, hence it's own line. High cardio if more intense than walking level 4 mph.
If your are lighter actually, then indeed not as much of a burn.

And if your BMR is really low because of higher BF%, then the FitBit is going to be inaccurate too, because it's basing the BMR which is used for calorie burn for all non-moving time, on your age, weight, height. And if your Katch BMR is lower than that BMR by fair amount - it will be inflating calorie burn by a fair amount too, especially if that sedentary with lots of non-moving time.